DanaE

Either. If I'm making votives and using a votive wax, I'll make tarts with it. Most pillar waxes can also be used for votives, so if I'm making pillars and votives at the same time, I keep some aside to make tarts at the same time. For the best scent throw, in my opinion, you should mix a votive or pillar wax with some container wax. Half of each is a good mix and it seems to make the tart last longer, scent wise. DanaE

I use wire cutters too and occasionally toenail clippers. My kitties' nail trimmers work great too, but my husband made those off limits because he's the one that trims the kitties' nails and he didn't like what I was doing to the trimmers! DanaE

Keep them and use them in your bathroom or save them for a time when the electricity goes off . Definitely don't sell them, or whoever buys them will think your votives are weak. You could also give them to family member, as long as you warned them about the scent throw. I use 3 tablespoons of stearic per lb of 4045H (or various other mottling waxes) and don't normally have much seepage. Try adding a little vybar 343 with the stearic and see what happens. Some scents will seep a little, but not enough to actually lose the scent throw. DanaE

No you don't use wicks, and they can be made with virtually any wax as long as it isn't too soft. I've made them with soy, paraffin and a few high melt point container waxes. I've made them with very soft wax, but had to use muffin liners and made a pretty large mess at the same time. They are basically small (1/2 ounce to 1 ounce) pieces of wax that you put in a tart warmer, light a tea light underneath and the wax melts and puts off the scent. Tart warmers can be electric also. DanaE

Also, if you don't have votive wick pins, you'd pour the wax into the mold, wait a few minutes until the wax at the bottom of the mold is starting to set up and then put the wick in. When I first starting making votives I didn't even know there was such a thing as wick pins, so I wicked all of my votives in their molds (thank goodness I used zinc wicks so they stood straight up and didn't collapse into the wax!). DanaE

I complicate things sometimes too . I use a pinch of vybar and some Crisco in my J50 containers also. I don't always do it, but I do if I think about it. It, for ME, helps increase scent throw and allows me to get more FO into the wax. Obviously, too much vybar causes the scent to bind, but 1/4 teaspoon pp doesn't hurt, and often helps. I can't remember all the exact reasons for doing it, but J50 is a preblend and it doesn't have to have any additives. I'm just one of those people that absolutely must add things to my wax, just for the fun of it. DanaE

That's what I've always used . The no-name generic spray at my grocery store is about $2.25 and one can lasts forever. For most applications I don't need mold release, but on rustic pillars I do, so I find I can go 6 months on one can...... DanaE

Yeah, love their Cinnabun and actually still buy it, but I found a wonderful one at Fragrance Oil Heaven for much cheaper. It's a virtual match to WSP's but has a little bit more 'icing' scent to it, which actually makes it better in my book (it's $17.95 a lb). DanaE

I can't imagine NOT using wick stick ems to hold the wicks in place. If not, once you get close to the bottom and wax is all liquid, that wick's gonna float and possibly fall over. I haven't purchased a Yankee or any other big brand candle in quite a while so I don't know what they do, but I imagine they don't want their wicks floating to the side and breaking the jar. They'd have a lot of lawsuits on their hands that way....... DanaE

I purchase mine from Jamie at www.printingbydesign.com - She makes all different types of labels and all sizes. She made my company labels as well as the warning labels (my warning labels have the candle fragrance name in the center). Many people here do make their own. I chose to let Jamie do it to save myself time and aggravation. Many things I'll make for myself; this is just one of those things I don't have the time or patience for! DanaE

I shrink wrap mine within 24 hours, even if I'm keeping it for myself. It protects the surface, and preserves the cold throw of the candles. Once unwrapped, they'll lose the cold throw after a while. In fact, my husband just brought back some pillars he had in his office because he only had them for the cold throw, but they're getting weaker. What I do is re-wrap them for a week or so and give them back to him. DanaE

Ah, okay. Well, it looks like the 62C isn't quite as hot as the LS17, but you could give it a try and test one. I definitely wouldn't be able to substitute this wick in an emergency, which is a shame. Since my wax is so much harder, you may have better luck wicking the jars than I do wicking the pillars. DanaE

Brenda, what wax do you use? I use the low smoke 17's in my OK6228 pillars. So far, the burn is not going very well. The 62 C's are burning maybe 1-1/2" of the 3" pillar; the shell is way too thick. I let it burn about 5 hours and then blew it out. I'll relight it in an hour or two and let it burn for another 4 hours or so and see what happens. If it's another pillar wax, you may be okay. Only the OK6228 seems to need a huge wick. DanaE

Brenda, I'm test burning a pillar right now to see what happens. I use the low smoke 17's in these normally, so put in a 62 cotton to see how differently they burn. I'll let you know tomorrow what type of difference I see, after I can get through 2 to 3 burns. DanaE

That's tough, mostly because I make most of my embeds . If you find yourself making many pies, you'll end up getting off much cheaper if you buy the molds and make the embeds yourself. Many of the sites charge $5.99 for 50 embeds, which can be used up in just a few pies. For $5.99 you could make a couple of lbs of embeds yourself! With that said, I like http://candlesbathandpotpourri.com/ She has a huge variety, ships quickly, and the items smell like they're supposed to. There are many many embed makers, so I'm sure other people here will pipe in with sites they've had good luck using. It took quite a while to get all the molds I needed, but over a span of about a year I purchased all the ones I'd need for virtually any pie or cake. Scottscrew is a good place to get embed molds at a very good price, as is http://www.flexiblemolds.com/cinnamon_bunsrolls.htm. I've purchased a dozen or so molds from each site and have had great luck with them so far. DanaE

I agree. The first burn or two can look like they're too hot, but then you get halfway through the pillar and it starts to struggle. The meltpool looks pretty good, so I'd keep burning until you get close to the bottom. If it was burning 3 or 4 hours, the flame was just high because it was time to be trimmed . I walk by my pillars with scissors every few hours to trim down the wicks. Of course, we all know most customers don't do that (although mine have promised me that they're getting better about it!), but I do it with the ones I burn for me. DanaE

Try a 51 Cotton, or an HTP83. They are both hotter than the 51Z (kind of like 1 step up from that size). DanaE

Very pretty I love those shades of blue! DanaE

I've had a couple of container waxes that burned perfectly with 2 HTP41's in a 16 oz apoth. jar. It depends on the type of wax, but I think 2 HTP52's are a good place to start. If your melt pool isn't too deep and you aren't getting black smoke everywhere, then I wouldn't worry and just keep burning it to the end. (and I agree, even though some charts recommend hotter wicks, I tend to go to the more cautious side and pick the smallest wick that'll work for that jar and give a complete meltpool). DanaE

If I'm just testing for wick size I may have 4 or so burning at once. In fact, I've lined up as many as 8 different votives at one time, all with different wicks, just to compare differences in how they burn. If I'm testing for scent throw, I may have 3 burning, in all different parts of the house. (1 in the basement, 1 upstairs in the bedroom, 1 downstairs in the kitchen or living room). DanaE

I use these....a lot. They smoke less, but still mushroom. I can't remember what the mushrooming looked like on the regular zinc, but I get the impression that these don't mushroom as much. I've found that if it says it's comparable to a 51Z, it's actually hotter; more like between a 51Z and 60Z. So if you use a 51Z normally, you could probably still use it's equivalent, a low smoke 21, but I'd try a low smoke 23 also (one size down) to see if it'll work. I use a low smoke 19 in my mottled/rustic pillars, and a low smoke 17 in my OK6228 pillars. When I used 1274 mottling wax I used a low smoke 21 and it was absolutely perfect. Unfortunately I can't afford the shipping on that wax, and had to go with a mottling wax from a supplier that is closer to me. I'd highly recommend buying a sample pack of them. That's how I started, and found that they didn't seem to have a wick small enough for a votive. Even their smallest size was too hot. They've added a couple of sizes since then, so they may have something. I know they didn't have low smoke 15's when I first started ordering them, but they do now. (they low smoke zinc for votives is WAY too hot for my OK6228 votives) DanaE

I test burn all my sizes and all the different fragrances. I have to, because sometimes I have to wick up. I'm pretty lucky that I can use the same size wick on most of the pillars though. (I carry 3x3, 3x6, 3x9,3x12, 4x5 and 6x6; I use octagonal, square, round and pyramid molds). I carry almost 70 scents right now, but I'm getting ready to pare down some. It's crazy trying to keep enough of each oil on hand to cover every order. In the last month I've ordered more fragrance oils than I've made in orders. Seems if they order 6 different pillars, I have to buy all the scents because I'm low. I'm now ordering at least 2 lbs of each scent when I place an order, and eventually I'll probably go up to 5 lbs of each scent, and carry 25-30 scents. DanaE

I don't have to clean mine after using OK6228 wax, but when I use a mottling wax I always have to clean them. There's little wax spots all in there. I love making OK6228 votives because I know there's no work afterwards! DanaE

I wouldn't wash the molds with water - they will rust. It might take a couple of months, but it'll happen. Ask me how I know.... I used to use the oven, heat them up and wipe them out. Now I have a work room in the basement, so I use the heatgun to get them hot and wipe them out. I do the same with pour pots. I get them really hot and then wipe wipe wipe, inside and out. DanaE

My first candles were Coconut Cream Pie votives. The place I purchased them from went out of business, and life without CCP just wasn't worth living, so I HAD to make my own! I went to Nature's garden, printed out the instructions on how to make a votive, bought a slab of OK6228, some wicks and some FO's (no coloring at first). I didn't know of any other online resource at the time, and didn't really need it. I only needed the directions on how to do it, and the proper wax and wicks for the application I didn't do any research ahead of time, and the votives came out perfectly. I'm not always sure why I see people say they research for months at a time; I say just jump on in there! Pick a type of candle, buy a slab of wax and wicks that work with that application and go for it! Then when you make mistakes, you understand why and can fix them. Nothing beats hands-on experience. Heck, I was so ignorant of the 'rules' at the time that I made votives with container wax (4786), votives with soy container wax (KY125), etc. They all came out of the molds just fine, and burned great, so I didn't know any better. Sometimes I think it's better not to know all the rules of candlemaking. Making them up as you go along is so much more fun! Don't be scared of wax. If you make a mistake you can melt it down, try again and move on. If you buy an FO, pour it into the wax and it's seriously nasty, throw it out. If you make something that's really ugly, only you know it. You can trash it or burn it just for you. DanaE - off the soapbox........